Starlight
by TheWheelWeaves
Summary: The Doctor has a bad habit of talking and never saying anything, but some things are too important to sully with words.


**About a million years ago (sometime toward the end of May) I promised my betababe, WhoLockGal, and my dear friend VeritasCara that I would have _Holmes and Tyler are Dead_ ready for them on their birthday (which is, conveniently, the same day). However, the writing of that story got so bogged down sometimes that I began to despair that I would ever have it finished, much less in time for their birthday, so I asked for a prompt from each of them to write if I couldn't get _HaTaD_ finished. I did, but I've had this lovely prompt hanging out in my inbox ever since, so since writing is proving shockingly difficult for me lately, I took a break from what I'm supposed to be writing and did this instead.**

**Technically, this does actually happen in the same timeline as my This Rose is Extra series, but if you haven't read that, never fear. This happens a LONG time before that series ever starts and will reference nothing in the slightest from that series.**

**VeritasCara's prompt was as follows: I know we have a deep mutual love for Nine, and I don't think you get nearly enough chances to write him, so if you have the time, I'd love a little birthday story that involves Nine + Rose + one of the adventures we hear about but don't see (Justicia, San Kloon, Kyoto, Woman Wept, etc.) + lots of glorious UST. I'll leave it up to you whether you set it pre or post Jack's arrival on the TARDIS. Sound good?**

**I hope it's just precisely what she wanted, I hope she had a fantastic birthday, and I hope everyone has a wonderful Fanfiction Friday.**

**(There might be a TRiE update later today... I won't promise anything, but there is a possibility!)**

* * *

"Dress warm," the Doctor barked through the wood of Rose's bedroom door. He offered no 'good morning,' no 'are you up yet,' or even the instruction to 'wake up.' Just the sharp command and the sound of his boots retreating down the hallway back toward the console room.

Rose sighed and turned back to the wardrobe into which she had been staring morosely when his voice had interrupted her quiet. Perhaps his ship had let him know that she was up, thinking about clothes, and could use his guidance. She had a feeling that such a thing would have led to a much longer rant about stupid apes, taking too long dressing, and the fact that the resident aliens wouldn't care much what she looked like anyway (this last with the unspoken, subtle, and disappointing reminder that the resident alien on the TARDIS didn't care much what she looked like either).

Rose sighed as she pulled a pair of lined jeans off of a shelf in her wardrobe and pulled them on. No matter how many times she told herself not to think of the Doctor as a _man_ her mind would inevitably wander down the paths that were only natural for a healthy human girl travelling the universe with a being to whom she was mightily attracted. Paths that seemed to remind her what people said about blokes with big ears (_and big hands_, Rose thought, _big feet as well_). Paths that only grew more worn as the Doctor got jealous of Jack and took her into his arms to dance. Paths that always seemed to lead only one place- Rose in a cold shower (_or a hot one, seeking a bit of relief_). Because, simply put, Rose was certain that the Doctor was not like that.

It didn't stop her from selecting a blue jumper to go over her black long-sleeved t-shirt. Blue was the Doctor's favourite colour, after all, and wasn't she pathetic for thinking that? Rose sighed and turned back to her bed to find a scarf on it.

"You want me to wear that?" Rose asked the air around her.

There was a cheerful series of chimes that sounded both affirmative and laughing.

Rose picked it up and pulled it towards herself and found herself continuing to pull. The blasted thing had to be 20 feet long or more!

"The whole thing?" Rose asked again.

This time she was quite certain that the chiming was laughter.

"He'll think I'm completely daft, wearing this!"

The chiming was harder to define this time, but Rose was pretty sure that the old ship was still trying to push her into putting the scarf on.

"Ah well. At least it'll be warm."

Rose started to wrap the scarf around herself, eventually giving into giggles as it became more and more ridiculous. She noticed, however, that the scarf smelled of something... something oddly familiar. She buried her face in the knit folds and inhaled deeply and caught the smell of warm honey and aged whiskey and amber. It was the Doctor's smell, but rather than being overlaid with the smell of leather and TARDIS oil, there was a faint tinge of something very sweet, like candy.

"This is his?" Rose asked the air.

The air chimed back to her in the affirmative.

"Gods," Rose murmured, holding the trailing ends up and trying to imagine her Doctor with his mad grin that hid so much pain and leather jacket like a suit of armour wearing something so patently ridiculous and found that she couldn't.

"Before the war?" Rose suggested. It was the only thing that fit, and the TARDIS confirmed it.

"He must have been a whole different man then. He won't mind? It won't bring back... memories?"

The TARDIS chimed again reassuringly.

"All right then, if you're sure. If he flies into a rage or something, I expect you to keep me safe, you understand?"

The TARDIS' chime this time was like an exasperated mother. Rose knew that she was right of course; the Doctor wouldn't do anything to harm her.

"At least he can't laugh too hard at me, as he wore it first."

The TARDIS chimed her agreement, and Rose decided she was ready to face whatever the Doctor had in store for her. She jogged to the console room, the ends of the scarf trailing behind her absurdly. She found the Doctor waiting for her. For once he was not working on something with Jack by his side, instead he was just waiting as though her arrival was the most important thing he could focus on at that moment.

When Rose appeared at the entrance, the Doctor's face lit up for a moment before he looked at her fully and his eyebrows drew down in sudden confusion.

"Where'd you get that old thing?" he asked.

"Er... TARDIS gave it to me. Guess she thought it'd be warm. It's yours?"

"Most things on this old ship are. Wonder why she thought you should wear that." The Doctor was smiling at her, which made Rose's racing heart slow. "She's getting a bit mad in her old age, my TARDIS."

There was an indignant chime from the console and the bit where the Doctor had laid his hand suddenly sparked, forcing him to pull his hand away quickly to avoid getting burned.

"Cheeky," he said to the TARDIS, then turned back to Rose with a smile. "Well, come on then, I've a surprise for you!"

Rose looked around the console room, wondering if she'd missed something. "We're not waiting for Jack then?"

The Doctor suddenly looked a bit cagey. "No... no Jack's having a bit of a lie-in. This is... well... that's to say... I wanted to show you... that is... this is something just for you, Rose. Something... well... just come on."

He extended his hand to her, and Rose knew that it didn't matter if he was leading her to the most horrible planet in the universe, she'd go anywhere he led. He smiled brilliantly when she laid her fingers against his palm and pulled her close into a sudden hug.

Rose wasn't even able to respond to being in the Doctor's arms, pressed against the Doctor's chest when he released her and started tugging her by the hand toward the TARDIS doors.

"Come on then, Rose Tyler. And you be careful about that scarf. Can't even count the number of times I nearly hanged myself with it. Must have been mad to wear it as long as I did."

"Been mad, Doctor? We're really putting that in the past-tense?" Rose grinned up at him, tucking her tongue between her teeth on the left side of her mouth.

"Why, Rose Tyler!" the Doctor cried in mock-outrage. "Are you implying that I'm mad? Bonkers? 'Round the twist? That I should not be trusted with your fragile and jeopardy-friendly well-being?"

"I don't think I was implying anything, but outright saying it," Rose said. "Except for that last part. Because, you know, Doctor, there's no one in the entire universe that I trust more, right?"

Rose blushed and glanced away from the Doctor. Though the words were true, she didn't usually give them voice, and she was afraid that she had said too much. When finally she was able to drum up the nerve to look at the Doctor, however, she found him smiling at her. Not his usual bright, almost brittle smile, but something softer, more honest, sweeter. Were Rose braver, she might have even called it loving.

"Come on, Rose," the Doctor said, softly, pulling on her hand toward the door. "I've something to show you, and it's fantastic!"

The Doctor pulled her toward the doors and pulled them open to a dreamscape of blue and white. Rose gasped and stepped onto the glassy ground without the Doctor giving her any prompting. Rather, he stood back and watched as her face went slack and her eyes went wide.

For her part, Rose felt as though she had stepped into a fairy tale- a landscape of alabaster and diamond. The TARDIS was parked in the middle of a body of water that was frozen solid as though in an instant- waves stood in their still perfection meters above her head, glistening and impossible. She could even see creatures inside of them, held forever as though in museum glass, bathed in the starlight.

Rose turned to the Doctor. He was wearing an expression that she recognized- pure, unadulterated joy at the beauty and wonder of the universe. He was not, however, looking at the spectacular landscape. He was looking only at her.

"It's beautiful, Doctor," Rose said, quietly.

"Yes," he breathed.

"What's it called?"

For a moment, confusion passed over the aesthetic face that Rose loved so dearly, but it passed almost too quickly to catch.

"The planet!" he cried, finally looking around. "This planet is called Woman Wept. Its sun experienced an instantaneous stellar occlusion." He glanced at her for a moment before grinning cheekily. "Means it went out all of a sudden, at the height of a massive storm. No sentient life here. There's a land mass a way's away. The only one on the planet. The way it's shaped, from above, it looks like a woman curled up, crying. It's only explorers who named it though. Or will name it. Still undiscovered just now. It's better that way, you can see what I want to show you more clearly."

"You mean… all this? It's not the surprise?"

The Doctor grinned again. "Oh no. This is… beautiful, but what I have to show you is a bit more… personal."

"Personal?" Rose's voice squeaked. The Doctor had never behaved like this before, and she wasn't sure whether it was absolutely brilliant or absolutely terrifying. The way her heart was thrumming in her chest, however, she thought it might be some combination of the two.

"Walk with me?" the Doctor asked, holding out his hand to her.

"Of course," she said, and if she was slightly breathless, the Doctor said nothing. She laid her fingers in his large, callused hand and, rather than just lacing their fingers together, as was his wont, the Doctor pulled her into his side and wrapped his arm around her.

"Can't get too far from the TARDIS," he explained as he led her around, acting as though their new position was nothing out of the ordinary. "The atmosphere is too thin, but she's helping you breathe. That's why the stars are so bright, you know. Any more atmosphere and this place would be too dark to see."

"Helping me breathe? Not you?"

"Nah, I don't need her help." Rose knew what was coming before he opened his mouth to give voice to the words, and she mouthed them along with him as he said "superior Time Lord biology."

"Of course," she said when he was finished.

"Ah, here we are," the Doctor said after a few minutes of walking.

They were on the top of a swell of sea that had not broken when the sun had gone dark. They were well above the surrounding waves, but the slope was gentle and there was no sharp drop-off to endanger them. The Doctor pulled Rose in front of him, hands on her hips, nestling her bottom against his pelvis, her shoulders against his chest. Rose could feel the double-beat of his hearts against her back as he wrapped his arm around her waist to hold her in place.

"There," the Doctor said, leaning close so that his breath tickled her ear, and Rose was surprised to realize that he was pointing. Her entire perception was taken up in the amount of her body that was touching his body in that moment, and everything else was peripheral. The Doctor was pointing, however, apparently finally showing her what he had brought her to this place to see. She followed his pointing arm and saw that he was pointing at the sky, into the stars.

"Where?"

The Doctor reached down and picked up her hand, curling his fingers around hers so that only her index finger was free. He then used her own hand to point at a star in the firmament.

"There."

"What is it, Doctor?"

"Stars, they're not flat on the sky. You know that, yeah? From different places in the universe, the constellations you know look completely different. Not that you lot have chosen star clusters that look much at all like what you say they do anyway."

"Are you going somewhere with this?" Rose asked, cutting him off before he got into one of his 'stupid ape' rants.

"Of course I am," he said with mock outrage. "What I'm saying is that there are different constellations in different parts of the universe, see?"

"Of course," Rose agreed. "Can't even see the same stars, right?"

"But that's what I'm saying. That there, that's a star that you can see from Earth. It's your Polaris."

"The North Star? That's it?"

"Yes. And on Earth, it's a part of a constellation, Ursa Minor, you know that too, yeah?"

"Yeah, I guess I remember that," Rose said, but she wasn't really sure. Science had never been her strong suit in school.

"It is. Promise."

Rose could hear the laugh in the Doctor's voice, but she couldn't fault him for it, not when he was wrapped around her as he was, smelling of leather and slow time and speaking so intimately into her ear.

"Now, your Polaris is a part of a constellation out here as well." The Doctor, still holding her hand, pointed out the nine other stars in a widening spiral that made up the constellation.

"Just a spiral?"

"Just a spiral. Now, stars are funny things, Rose. They're short-lived, you know."

Rose laughed at that. "Oh yeah, just a couple of billion years they live. Babes in arms they are."

The Doctor didn't laugh. "In the grand scheme of the universe, stars don't last very long, Rose. For the universe, they're a bit like… well, a bit like a human in comparison to a Time Lord."

The remains of the laughter died in Rose's throat.

"The thing about stars though is that the light they emit, it lives on after them. They die, they fade away, but that light… it lasts and it lights the darkness long after they are gone. You understand?"

Rose couldn't speak. She did understand. She understood perfectly. All she could do was nod.

"That constellation. There's two names for it. Some people call it the Labyrinth. But I don't like that name, not so much."

Rose knew what she was supposed to ask, but she could barely force the words out of her constricted throat. "What's the other name?"

"The Rose."

"Oh…"

"And the light from that Rose, the beauty of that Rose… It's going to live on. It's going to bring light to the darkness for a long, long time. Practically forever. The universe will never forget that Rose."


End file.
